2023-11-23 23:01:58
Senegal will receive its first satellite at the beginning of December – entirely designed and built by a team of Senegalese engineers and technicians, trained at the Montpellier university space center. A 1.5 million euro project supported by the Senegalese Ministry of Higher Education which hopes to boost a new sector of activity that creates jobs.
From our correspondent in Dakar,
It is in Senegal, in a large room equipped with screens and computers, that the monitoring and control of the first Senegalese satellite will be carried out. The main mission of the small black box sent into space will be to collect data from state meteorological and water level measurement agencies which have stations across the country.
« We had to go there and recover the data », Indicates engineer Ismaila Sall, head of the space project. “ Leaving Dakar to go to Ziguinchor to recover data is quite complicated. With the satellite, we can directly communicate with this station from the sky, retrieve the data and transmit it right here in Dakar.. »
This 10-centimeter nanosatellite will pass over Senegal four times a day for five years. Moustapha Diop, a 26-year-old Senegalese engineer, is responsible for managing communication between the satellite and the ground station.
« I am in charge of doing a thesis on space telecommunications. I would like to do it in France in the largest laboratories, but also to return to Senegal followingwards to be a teacher, but also to participate in the development of my country, particularly for this cutting-edge technology. », he hopes.
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A partnership with the Montpellier university space center
In total, eight engineers and five technicians have been trained at the Montpellier University Space Center since 2020. This is the result of a partnership with the Senegalese Ministry of Higher Education and Research coordinated by Gayane Faye.
« If we took the option of training people, it is really to create a sector », emphasized Gayane Faye. « This will also enable startups that will launch into this field. We will also be able to collaborate with universities, this way we will allow transfers of knowledge, technologies and why not tomorrow train another youth here in Senegal, who these young people will be able to train. »
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Thanks to a similar partnership with the Montpellier Space Center, Djibouti launched its first satellite in mid-November. Other African countries might follow. Sébastien Hesse, French space engineer, explains why miniature satellite technology is of increasing interest:
« There will be laboratories, universities, it might also be industry… Everyone is starting to adopt these technologies more and more. It is to have a lower cost satellite, less expensive than a 100 or 200 kilo satellite, which can possibly carry out the same type of mission. »
The first Senegalese satellite should be put into orbit in the first quarter of 2024.
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